William Blair Begins Coverage on First Advantage (NYSE:FA)

William Blair assumed coverage on shares of First Advantage (NYSE:FA) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued an outperform rating on the stock.

FA has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on First Advantage from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on First Advantage from $16.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, First Advantage presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $18.00.

First Advantage Price Performance

First Advantage stock opened at $16.47 on Tuesday. First Advantage has a 12 month low of $12.10 and a 12 month high of $17.49. The company has a current ratio of 4.39, a quick ratio of 4.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.55. The company has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.88, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.21.

First Advantage (NYSE:FA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.01). First Advantage had a net margin of 4.88% and a return on equity of 13.84%. The firm had revenue of $202.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $211.05 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that First Advantage will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Joseph K. Jaeger sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.95, for a total value of $339,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 696,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,802,251.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of First Advantage by 3.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,460,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,717,000 after purchasing an additional 115,370 shares during the period. Cat Rock Capital Management LP increased its stake in First Advantage by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Cat Rock Capital Management LP now owns 3,325,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,109,000 after acquiring an additional 303,000 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in First Advantage by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,660,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,090,000 after acquiring an additional 255,807 shares during the last quarter. Sunriver Management LLC increased its stake in First Advantage by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Sunriver Management LLC now owns 1,151,665 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,083,000 after acquiring an additional 240,464 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in First Advantage by 3,654.0% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,027,812 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 94.91% of the company’s stock.

About First Advantage

First Advantage Corporation provides employment background screening, identity, and verification solutions worldwide. It offers pre-onboarding products and solutions, such as criminal background checks, drug/health screening, extended workforce screening, FBI channeling, identity checks and biometric fraud mitigation tools, education/work history verification, driver records and compliance, healthcare credentials, executive screening, and other screening products.